Top 6 Benefits Of Gardening For Students

by Jill Sandy of Constant Delights

The benefits of gardening for students are not about the duration they spend aerating the soil, but about their peacefulness and satisfaction after school hours.

Spending time out digging in the dirt and feeling the embrace of nature is the physical activity that releases stress and anxiety in students. The benefits of gardening have been proved in scientific research, showing how humans can remarkably improve their spirits and physical health.

Here are the 6 surprising positive impacts when schools apply the garden-based learning strategy outside of class hours.

Learning quicker

It’s 2021, and technology helps us shorten our time working and studying. But technology and the internet are double-edged swords. Science shows that at least 7 out of 10 students suffer from depression, addiction, and disorder.

To deal with this problem and help our young generation have a better childhood memory, gardening seems like an excellent idea.

The first and foremost benefits of gardening are better memory, encouraging creativity, organization, and problem-solving skills. All of these advantages add to the students’ excellent performances at school.

Gardening for kids is the type of exercise that stimulates their brain nerves to produce BDNF and PDGF related to memory. Scientific research revealed that one of the potential gardening benefits includes improved cognitive function.

The activity also encourages young kids to thrive for creativity when arranging the plants’ layout accordingly or doing some infographic drawings of a garden. 

It might be challenging for students to set up similar and beneficial plants near each other or organize vegetables and maintain the school gardens.

But the most challenging part is keeping track of each plant’s growing process, which requires students to focus and manage their time thoroughly. 

While getting their hands dirty in a garden, students can practice their understanding, responsibility, and self-confidence skills that strengthen their brains and increase the opportunity to learn more. 

As a result, they thrive on knowledge and are eager to obtain more information in class.

Stress Relief

Like I’ve stated above, one of the main reasons that distract students from studying is depression. There has been plenty of research showing how students these days deal with various mental severe issues, and gardening can do some help.

Relaxation is not a thing that needs to be studied. Humans have experienced that since birth, and they need a safe environment to regain the feeling. 

Planting seeds allow children to be alone, breathe the fresh air, and be one with nature. Cortisol, the hormone produced by stress, will dramatically decrease, and students can bring back the habit of calming themselves.

Those who access vegetable gardens at a young age can better perform and deal with challenges than those who have limited chances to be with nature. 

Observing the growing process of the garden plants is also an act of meditation. Students dedicate their full attention to the task and concentrate on the vegetables, which helps achieve a mentally clear and emotionally stable state.

Physical Exercise

Planting seeds and taking care of the entire vegetable garden is not as simple as you think. The job mostly requires students to use their muscles.

One will have to experience digging, bending, twisting, carrying, climbing, and sometimes running. It’s a great way to activate all the sleeping muscle groups and enhance the body’s immune system and strength.

Even though you might experience a sore body on the next day, these outdoor activities help build flexibility, strength, and stamina. And since the calories you burn while planting varies from 200-700 calories per hour, you can also accomplish weight and fat loss – there, you kill two birds with one stone, only with gardening.

Apart from enhancing physical ability, gardening teaches children how to take care of and be responsible for their health. When they have to look after a certain plant, their brains operate observed patterns. 

As a result, children familiar with taking care of other objects have more responsibility for their health.

Increases Attention to Details

Planting greenery or vegetable in the garden is more than just digging a hole and watering every day. It requires a focused and observant mind.

The hallmark of development in gardening is that it forces students to sharpen their minds and be attentive to small details while aerating the soil with their hands. Before planting anything, they will have to research the plants’ life cycles and observe all the factors that might affect the plant’s growth process.

For example, students will have to record in their journals and do some math in the garden for the date, weather cycles, level of rainfall or humidity, the existence of insects and bugs, etc. High awareness of details can foster curiosity and mental clarity in a child.

Healthy lifestyles

What is the fun of gardening? It’s “reaping what you sow,” which means getting to eat what you’ve planted. It’s the same for students who have been waiting for months only to receive their well-earned achievements.

We’re not talking about whether it can create a habit of eating healthy foods, but gardening can reduce the frequency of eating snacks at school. Many Growing Health Benefits Reports demonstrate how effective planting seeds can prevent obesity and other health problems.

Apart from increasing the consumption of fresh organic food, gardening also allows students to arrange a better resting schedule. Students often suffer from sleep deprivation, but growing plants can fix this problem.

After a long working day out in the school gardens, they will drain their energy out. As soon as their back touches the bed, they will immediately fall asleep and have the full required resting hours.

Environmental awareness

Climate change is one of the popular answers to the question of why gardening is essential. For so many years and throughout so many campaigns, we’ve understood that growing trees will prevent soil erosion, replenish nutrients in the soil, or reduce pollution.

But as for children, the importance of gardening toward environmental awareness is that they can avoid dumping harmful synthetic fertilizer or pesticides into the soil and water.

The carbon footprint released from the vehicles will also be reduced as the plants grow to absorb the carbon from the atmosphere to the soil. And if you can plant your food resources, you can eliminate more than just your carbon footprint.

In the future, if students continue to plant gardens, they can promote sustainable agriculture and improve the ecology of the area.

The Bottom Line

Starting from the planting seeds to the final harvest stage, the benefits of gardening activities occur throughout the whole process. Students will understand how special gardening makes them feel if they are willing to keep the habit for the long term. 

Gardening is a simple act that makes significant changes in daily life; therefore, we should continue teaching kids about gardening. It brings a fantastic opportunity for students to improve their academic skills and social skills. 

Author Bio: Jill is a sustainable focus gardener at Constant Delights. She loves decorating her home backyard with beautiful landscape design and creative garden care techniques she develops herself.